April 16, 2012

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Whispers of the Muse: Werekill’s Venser Deck

by Dredd77

Welcome back to another installment of Whispers of the Muse, our occasional deckbuilding series that takes a reader-submitted deck, then turns it over to the community to tweak and modify! Today’s submission is a timely one, as Duel Decks: Venser vs Koth was only recently released. Werekill has been poring over it, sensing that there were improvements to be made but not quite sure where to begin.

Says Werekill:

I think it would make a fun Modern deck, but other than adding a few cards like Lone Missionary, Mulldrifter, and a few Vensers, I’ve got no idea where to go with it.

What do you think folks, is there enough of a shell for a decent Modern deck here? This is the scorecard from our writeup:

If you were rebuilding the deck, what would you keep? What would you cut? And what other cards would you bring into the deck?

By the way, if you want to include some of the “blink” effects from the new set that’s about to release, I don’t mind. There’s an instant that does an instant Venser effect (ie puts on battlefield immediately instead of eot) for a single white mana, and theres a 2U card that does the same to 2 permanents at once.

Those are good options, but there are older ones like Momentary Blink and Otherworldly Journey that are options too. The latter also adds a +1/+1 counter. Might come in handy if you’re not using undying.

But yeah. I’d try to focus on Venser’s first ability, and add more ETB creatures, like the aforementioned Mulldrifters and Venser (creature form). I’d also wait for Avacyn Restored’s new tricks, like Ghostly Flicker and Cloudshift, for redundancy. 🙂

I made a Venser deck myself a few months back, but most of my knowledge is going to be in Standard… Anyway, there are lots of ETB critters/artifacts out there, and some good support cards too. (I’ll keep my suggestions on-color with White/Blue)

Non-creature support:
Pacifism or any aura (blink to re-attach to a different—even hexproof, because it doesn’t target if it’s not cast—creature)
Day of Judgment (blink one of your big creatures before casting)
Saving Grasp (dodge removal, reuse ETB effects)
Tumble Magnet/Sphere of the Suns/Vivid lands (blink to recharge counters)

Well, those are some options for Venser’s +2 anyway… that’s not even focusing on his -1, though bounce your token producers a few times and that “creatures are unblockable” ability will be pretty great. 🙂

Your +1/+1 counter-growing allies will be susceptible to not only normal removal, but also bounce, so you’d want some counter-magic and/or protection (maybe Faith’s Shield, which could also protect Venser) as well. Might as well throw some proliferate in while you’re at it for Venser’s loyalty counters and the +1/+1 counters. Tezzeret’s Gambit is the obvious one, I think…

I play casually only with modern cards, but double check me. Some might be DD reprints or something like it.

I stripped mine down to basic lands and built it up from there. I used quite a bit of what was originally in the deck (I bought 2 of ’em), but I bet qutie a few of those won’t be modern legal. It really just depends on where you want to take this deck.

I maxed out Clone and added in another O. Ring. Depending on how much bounce you have, you might consider, at least siding anyway, Prison Term. The ability to reattatch it without bouncing is nice and well worth the extra mana.

I kept the Sphinx and maxed out Preordain. I can’t remember if I stuck some Foresees in it or not. I think I put a pair of Wall of Omens in instead of them. I didn’t use any artifacts, but I play casually.

Basically a lot of nice ETB effects with a few counterspells on the side. Oh and a second helping of Venser. It all adds up, but you definately need some sort of finisher. I use the Sphinx it came with. The Angel just didn’t fit where I was going with the deck.

Having a little instant bounce would be good too. Otherworldly Journey is a favorite of mine.

Sounds like a plan. I’m considering getting another of these, but I’m going to try to split the cost with the friend so that I can just spend 10 on the Venser deck. He likes red, and the Koth stuff seems good for him.

Having completed a few games with the Venser deck myself, I found out that a quick and smooth play as well as courage when it comes to tough choices, are key. Therefore a few cards were weighing on my hand, rather than being cast:
* Vanish into memory: As nice as the momentary removal is, I dislike the discard part
* Minamo Sightbender: I rarely found myself having the mana for his activated ability available
* Windreaver: It might be a lack of skill on my side, but I don’t cope with that creature. Being quite expensive for it’s stats, it requires to leave quite some lands untapped in order to make use of it’s potential.
* Overrule: The same is true here. As the lifegain does not make that much of a difference there are better counters for at least 3 mana.

Some suggestions for replacements:
* Meddling Mage: Not only can he prevent Koth from ever showing up, in addition it doesn’t say anywhere on the card that the restriction lasts as long as the mage is in play. Blink him again and again and create a list of red spells to forbid 🙂
* Galepowder Mage: More of him helps to enable free blinks.
* Aethermages Touch: An underrated card that seems to be made for ETB effects
* Sky Hussar: At the same cost as the Windreaver, he comes with a more stable body as well as a nice ETB ability.
* Preordain: Well, blue is part of the deck, isn’t it?

You are wrong about Meddling Mage: when it is removed from the battlefield, the restricted card can be cast again. When it returns, you can name that card again (or another card), but the previous restriction will have disappeared regardless.

Great card. My VvK hasn’t come in yet, so I can’t remember if I put it in it or not. Knowing me, I probably did even though I doubt I’d use the draw too much in it. That shines best when you have tokens. No matter what it’s a nice combat trick.

We had another duel this weekend and there were several things that I noticed:
* That Windreaver is so absolutely useless. An overcosted 1/3 body and no way of using the activated abilities as all the mana is needed for spells
* Koth’s deck is all about putting Mountains into play, so Overrule hardly works out. Any other hard counter – I suggest replacing it with Negates – is better suited.
* My best weapon against Koth himself was the Neurok Invisimancer. He didn’t last long against this little friend.
* The Galepowder Mage proved to be an absolute blast. My opponent was willing to do any unfavorable trade in order to get him off the field.
* On the other end of the table I almost always found two 3/3 (or even 5/5) first striking Plated Geopedes in the red zone.
* More scary than Koth was Jaws of Stone. As said, the red deck cares about it’s lands, this spell ended my game when I was in the assumed safety of 12 life …

I still don’t know how to brace my deck against these threats for our next encounter. Of course, shifting to all control would be an answer but it would take the fun out of the deck …

I love Venser, and i have put several sunblast angel’s with a Sleep combination as a finisher. But, even without the Sleep, Sunblast keeps creatures at bay when they have the knowledge you could blink him and destroy all of his creatures that attacked.